#shitamachi

[kown]

disguise by craig exton

[todayintokyo]

Hello! I think you had either reblogged and added info to a post, or were the OP, but regardless, it was about Shitamachi culture, referencing San'ya Blues, Yabuki Joe, etc. Well I have fallen down the rabbit hole and now researched and bought multiple books on the topic (Edo-period Shitamachi life to present), and it's been a fascinating deep dive into some of the areas I stayed in while visiting Japan but didn't know the history of. Thank you for making/spreading the word about all that! (And if that wasn't you... I am embarrassed haha, but such is life, we make mistakes!)

Hello! Yes, I plead guilty. When I arrived in Japan yonks ago, I discovered a Japan Times columnist called Sumiko Enbutsu, and ended up buying all her books. That's how my fascination with Edo and the shitamachi started. I lived in that triangle between Akihabara, Ueno and Asakusa till last year, when I moved to a leafy suburb out west.

All these books, except the Atlas, were written by her. Sempai! I doubt they're still available, but if you ever see them in a second-hand store, grab 'em. Glad to hear you're one of us, and that I could help to pass on shitamachi lore! ‧₊˚✧⸜(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)⸝ ✧˚₊‧

[takaaki-kobayashi]

[babyangeloplus]

The day I was able to heal and fall in love again

[stochastique-blog]

Experiment - Automatic Random_Reblog - Ask me !

FUGU • ふぐ — Kanda, Tokyo #fugu #kanda #shitamachi #burndiary #hikaricreative #spicollective #capturestreets #therawsociety #Leica #LeicaQ2 #CCwalks (at Kanda, Tokyo) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIHas4pDLzi/?igshid=jpm23gblwgwt

[naota-gray]

Posting this for no particular reason

[arbitrarygreay]

25 years before MM returned to New Jack Swing with SaiKiyou, Taiyou to Ciscomoon did it for their first single's B-side, including the rapping and chords fuckery.

Hello Project! The more things change, in the best way

[akermanch]

3am feel like pure shit just want her back (Ryounkaku Japan’s first Western-style skyscraper destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923)

[stochastique-blog]

Insert Random Comments

本日の入館券一枚目。 柱時計がどれも動いていた。 #ゴミ箱 が懐かしい。自宅にはなかったが、どこかでは現役だった。

#museum #shitamachi #life #ueno #pass

#さわしかの角おつる #冬至 #霜月 #december‬ (Shitamachi Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/Br7kP4zHycG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1sywvqp21951j

[c-schroed]

I just finished the Japanese TV Show "Downtown Rocket", and I absolutely l o v e this lil drama about a medium-sized engineering company trying to compete with the big companies to be part in the Japanese space program. It's well played and really well-told.

But sometimes I also just yearn for little snippets that my silly brain can gleefully take out of context and misinterpret:

Launching a rocket together. It's that what it's called these days? 🤣

[japanicus-nerdus]

Photo of the Day: Standing Room Only...

This was taken in Fukagawa, Tokyo, one of the “shitamachi” areas. Shitamachi translates to “downtown,” but the meaning is different. Downtown denotes business districts in English, but shitamachi denotes areas where the ��common folk” lived during the Edo Period. These tended to be near the water and East of the castle. They are characterized by winding streets, older buildings, lots of cats,…

[readerviews]

MEET THE AUTHOR! A conversation with Michael Pronko – Author of “Shitamachi Scam,” part of the Detective Hiroshi Series

Today, Reader Views talks with Michael Pronko about his book, Shitamachi Scam #reading #meettheauthor #authorinterview #readerviews

Shitamachi Scam Michael PronkoRaked Gravel Press (2023)ISBN:  978-1942410317Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Reader Views (12/2023) Michael Pronko is a Tokyo-based author who writes in three genres—murder, memoir, and music. He has written about Japanese culture, art, jazz, society, architecture, and politics for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, Artscape Japan, as well as other publications. He…

[hbmmaster]

to your knowledge, has there ever been an officially-licensed Super Mario-themed puppet show (or similar)?

i ask because this came up as a link from today's featured Wikipedia article and i'm sure there's a way to get a terrible pun out of it somehow

something "similar" to a puppet show you say? there's quite a lot of that! just off the top of my head there's Shitamachi Ninjō Gekijō (1995-1996) and The Cat Mario Show (2014-2021)

[shoku-and-awe]

OKAY YES this is absolutely asinine and I know it, but also it made me literally whoop out loud and scare my dog so here you go!

The fucking Toden, baby! Why yes, I AM an adorable tram(p) that roams suburban Arakawa, hurtling back and forth between Rocco's Pizza in Oji and my beloved dinky shitamachi neighborhood at mindbending speeds in excess of 13 km/h! I miss those days! I miss the incessant dinging noise. I miss the elderly passengers and their tiny overstimulated grandchildren and all the advertisements for enka singers and medical clinics. Constantly getting passed by mamacharis and loving every minute.

[marukrawler]

i really like what gi did with the concept of the switch code.

season 3 was when we saw a lot of battler and bakugan pairs change—aranaut lost jin but found a new partner in fabia, rubanoid lost sid but partnered up with linus, lumagrowl lost kazarina, linus lost neo, etc. there were even temporary pairups, such as with dan and hawktor, shun and drago, and ren and rubanoid.

then we were introduced to the switch code which is the idea of the perfect matchup between a bakugan and a battler; a partner who can bring out a bakugan’s maximum potential. this makes sense when you consider that hawktor wasn’t entirely comfortable with dan’s aggressive fighting style and how drago wasn't used to shun's quick and stealthy movements.

ren also gave rubanoid to linus, believing that a pyrus battler could make better use of rubanoid's abilities than he could.

furthermore, barodius knew that he didn't hold the key to maximizing linehalt’s power; that key belonged with ren, which is why barodius went so far out of his way to manipulate ren into doing his bidding.  

a not so quick aside, but i genuinely believe hawktor was the best partner for shun after skyress. he was just the right mixture of bird and ninja, and his rough edo/shitamachi dialect and mannerisms carried an easygoing vibe that just wasn't present with ingram's overly serious and samurai-esque character. hawktor's personality was informal and playful enough without being too close to the level of marucho's usual goofy partners.

it paired off nicely with shun's more reserved and no-nonsense nature instead of adding to it, and i like to think it helped soften him. plus the bird aspect of shun's partners completely disappeared in season 4 with taylean and jakkor and i think it's a very important element to keep.

i'm glad hawktor was introduced in the season that dealt with the idea of perfect pairings and i'm inclined to say shun could have the switch code for hawktor and not skyress. shun and skyress shared a special bond but there was a reason why skyress couldn't stay with him so it's unlikely that shun and skyress would be the right partners for each other in the long run.

this does bring up interesting questions such as: who has aranaut’s switch code? does it lie with fabia or did it lie with jin (and similarly with rubanoid, linus and sid.) did these new partnerships come to pass because there was someone more ideal for them out there? or were they perfect for each other from the very start?

the switch code as a concept is really fascinating, especially when considering the japanese descriptions from the old s1 website. they speak of the bakugan coming to earth through a link with their respective battler, further reinforcing the idea that bakugan and battler bonds are, in a way, predestined.

we see this especially with how all the brawlers met their bakugan (sans runo.) drago came to earth right in the middle of dan’s battle, preyas came to earth months before and still found his way to marucho, golem quite boldly proclaims that julie is the perfect partner for him, skyress came with the wind through the window in shiori’s hospital room because that’s where shun spent most of his time as shiori got sicker, etc.

that's why i find it especially annoying when ms1 takes that concept and makes it needlessly complicated. what was once a special bond between battler and bakugan is now a "key and gate"?

there's such a thing as a "malfunction" in their bond which has nothing to do with dan and drago's unity as a team???

so the switch code no longer represents dan and drago's friendship and compatibility as partners but instead it's a thing that mag mel can physically steal from them?? stealing drago's power to escape is one thing but taking drago's dna code?? when razenoid already has drago's dna code inside of him?? what????

you see how strange it gets and how it starts to make little sense? now dan and drago's switch code has become a macguffin of sorts to drive the plot of ms1 forward when it was once the simple work of fate inevitably pulling two beings together in a partnership (if it hadn't already.) it makes absolutely no sense for code eve's power to be able to change dan and drago's bond of friendship into a key that can then be stolen and used to free the supervillain she imprisoned herself and/or make him stronger. (insert code eve is a terrible orb deity jokes.)

it's disappointing because maybe this could've been the season where dan and drago performed worse as a team because their friendship was put to the test, a callback to season 1 if you will. i like the idea behind the mechtogan, because it's an ability that requires battler and bakugan to be in sync in order to summon and command one, but not the execution because, well, it's a giant robot fighting on behalf of the bakugan. it gets boring to look at real quick.

plus, the idea of being in sync to summon your own mechtogan is dropped in the second half of the season when dan and drago can seemingly share the ability with the rest of their team so. . .what was the point (merch.)